Merck & Co., Inc. $MRK Shares Bought by Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC

Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) by 117.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 6,165 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,329 shares during the period. Amplius Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 0.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 252,513,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,665,601,000 after purchasing an additional 1,417,274 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 81,669,651 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,330,668,000 after purchasing an additional 927,621 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 144.6% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 49,229,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,418,820,000 after purchasing an additional 29,104,112 shares during the period. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 37.1% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 13,077,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,130,397,000 after purchasing an additional 3,542,036 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. during the 1st quarter worth about $991,553,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.07% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MRK. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Berenberg Bank downgraded shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the company from $100.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Monday, October 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $95.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.33.

Merck & Co., Inc. Stock Performance

Shares of MRK stock opened at $86.30 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.75. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 52 week low of $73.31 and a 52 week high of $105.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The company has a market cap of $215.56 billion, a PE ratio of 13.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.37.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The company reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.22. The business had revenue of $17.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17 billion. Merck & Co., Inc. had a net margin of 25.79% and a return on equity of 41.05%. The business’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.57 EPS. Merck & Co., Inc. has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.930-8.980 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current year.

Merck & Co., Inc. Profile

Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products.